In a bid to protect and give a boost to domestic manufacturing, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has decided to increase basic customs duty (BCD) to 10 percent from 7.5 percent in the capital goods sector. At the same time, the government is also trying to create an enabling environment for the production of electronic hardware, is the word coming in from Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.

He also says the Finance Bill will lay retrospective tax resolution process into law. India did not have a set conciliatory roadmap for retro tax cases, he adds. Talking about the FRBM Act, which has been under implementation for more than a decade, and the finance minister’s proposition to constitute a Committee to review the implementation of the FRBM Act and give its recommendations on the way forward.

On the electronic and hardware electronic front Mr Adhia said that what Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad had announced as part of the electronic manufacturing policy has also found its way into the Budget. He also said that, “Last time we had a very successful experiment of starting the mobile production, mobile phone production in India because of the specific duty structure which was created that time. Going by the experience we would like to extend it to some more items in the current year as per the phase manufacturing plan of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY); department of electronics has made a phase manufacturing plan. So, we will be taking some more items this year and then some more items next year. So, like that we would like to create an ecosystem for production of electronic hardware industry in India.”